They came out wonderful!What a great cheap way to make decorations for the garden. I'm thinking that I could alter this idea and make cute memorial stones for my pets...if you don't mind me stealing the idea that is!

Hi! I just wanted to share a few of my latest projects. Using a hot glue gun, I traced images inside plastic containers, and then pressed concrete into it.

This one has the chinese character for "long life."

For this one, I used a permanent marker to draw the images on the exterior of the plastic container, then I traced the images inside with the hot glue gun. Once the concrete was set, I used patio paint to highlight the imprints, then whitewashed the entire planter.

Sometimes it's hard to get the glue gun into the container, so I drew an image of a bunny with my glue gun onto a transparency, slipped the transparency into a milk container, and pressed concrete into it.

Now I have to find the right plants to go with each of my concrete containers. Any suggestions?

Here's another twist on the project. I imprinted my nephew's name (in Chinese) on a slab of concrete. Once the concrete set, I immersed it in water and then used a submersible light to light it all up.

I intended for this to be a night light, but after making one, I think I will make more as patio luminaries.These are the materials I used. I was lucky enough to find everything (except the wax paper-- I already had that in my pantry) at the Dollar Store:A glass jarWall stickers - I lucked out on this, because the Dandelion and Dragonfly stickers are sold on Amazon for about $5.50 - yay, for bargains!!Battery-operated tea lightWax paper

The process:Ultimately the jar will be displayed upside-down. Clean the jar, apply the stickers to the outside of the upside-down jar. If the jar has curves and bumps, snip the sticker in these areas to avoid any creases. Insert a roll of wax paper. Place the tea light on the inside of the lid. Close, and display.

In preparation for Valentine's Day, I put this little project together. I still haven't mounted the letters and heart onto a frame.

Here's a little collage of how I made it:

I crocheted the letters and heart out of jute gardening twine, using a J Hook. Alternatively, if you don't crochet, you could probably cut out the the letters and heart out of thick packing paper. The base should be biodegradable so you can plant them after a few months. The crochet stitches help to hold the little stems of the succulents in place.

For the letters, I widened each stitch with a pencil, dotted with tacky glue and inserted a succulent cutting. For the heart, I glued the leaves of the succulents onto the outer edge of the twine. I've found that the succulents will stay fresh for about 2-3 months without any growing medium. By 3 months time, I can just place them on top of some well-drained soil.

I decided to make a display out of the cake pans my pastry-chef sister gave me. The materials: 3 cake pans, 2 jars of the same height (one thinner than the other), E6000 (where would we be without this?)Here are the steps I used to put it together:

GLUE - Apply glue to the smaller cap and attach to the bottom of the smallest cake pan. Do the same for the larger cap and medium cake pan. In order to help center the cap, I drilled a hole in the center of the cake pan and marked the center of the cap. I could then use the mark as a guide. Let the glue set for about six hours.

My friends and I were talking about things we just can't live without, and I thought I would fuse some of those obsessions into one piece: succulent plants, crocheting and bacon. The bacon is jute gardening twine, crocheted in two rows of single crochet stitches, and then painted with acrylics to give the look of bacon. What are your obsessions?